John Gernoun

He claimed descent from the de Gernon family, who are described as "barons" in the Domesday Book. His father Roger Gernoun was a military commander who distinguished himself during the Bruce campaign in Ireland of 1315–1318. John also fought in the campaign and was wounded in the hand at the Battle of Faughart in October 1318, where Edward Bruce was killed.The National Archives SC 8/82/4099 Petition of John Gernon of Ireland 1320 John was probably born in Louth: he later owned land in Dundalk. The Gernoun family had strong links to that county and gave their name to Gernonstown, an area with which John retained strong links, and where his descendants lived in the following century. Several members of the Gernoun family held the office of High Sheriff of Louth between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Richard Gernon, High Sheriff of County Louth, was murdered in 1311, a casualty of a long-running feud between the Gernouns and the prominent Brisbon family of Dundalk. It is not clear if the judge was related to the wealthy English landowner John Gernoun, who died in 1384. ==Early career ==

Our first record of John is his petition of 1320 to King Edward II of England to have the fishery of Gernonstown, from the river to the sea, granted to him for life. He served two terms as Serjeant, from 1327 to 1330 and from 1334 to 1337. In the intervals he acted as attorney for the great heiress Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster, who had inherited her father's estates at an early age. He was a substantial landowner in County Louth and, as was the custom with judges in this era, he was excused from performing the normal feudal duties of a landowner. ==Judge ==

He was appointed a justice of the Court of Common Pleas (Ireland) in 1338 and became its Chief Justice in 1341. He stepped down as Chief Justice in 1344 but was reappointed second justice of the Common Pleas in 1348. As Chief Justice there were complaints that he would adjourn cases without reaching a final judgment. In 1345 one John de la Pulle, accused of assault by Margery Poe, complained that due to Gernoun's misconduct (described as the "intervention of error"), he could not get justice. Gernoun's successor as Chief Justice, Thomas de Dent, was ordered to make a full inquiry and report to the Justiciar of Ireland. In 135O he gave a quitclaim to John de Kerseley for all his tenements in Dundalk;National Library of Ireland D16532 de Kerseley paid him 100 shillings in return. He probably died in 1357. ==Marriage and descendants==

He married, probably before 1330, Matilda, widow of William de Nottingham (son of the long-serving Lord Mayor of Dublin, Robert de Nottingham and his wife Loretta de Bree). After Gernoun's death, she remarried his colleague John Keppock. John Gernoun of Gernonstown, who received a royal pardon in 1422, was probably a descendant of the judge.National Library of Ireland D15584 ==References==